Respawning Restricted
by IxnayTheRight
Summary: You may have been chosen by the light Guardian, but you forget something. You were also chosen by me. And you will need my help and the help of the light to defeat your enemies. And trust me they are numerous and belligerent. (Summary subject to change as this is a work in-progress)


Chapter 1 - Awakening

A small box floats its way across a desolate wasteland. As it passes the corpses of what it recognizes as Golden Age cars it hears the battle cry of the Fallen, an enemy of the light. Quickly moving to the shadows of the Cosmodrome, The Ghost, a creation of the Traveler, knows not to be spotted by the Fallen. They were just one of the few, but plentiful, enemies in the solar system.

The Ghost had been searching for weeks or was it months? Maybe even years? Time was something that was lost to the Ghost, it only knew its purpose: to find his Guardian. He had met other Ghosts in passing who regaled him with tales of their adventures to find their guardians. Some having been to different planets, and other telling him of the joy of finding their own guardians. They also regaled him with the horrors of the solar system. They told him of the Hive on the Moon, the Fallen on Earth, the Cabal on Mars, and the Vex on Venus and how they were all known for destroying wandering Ghost.

As the Fallen had moved on to another section of the Cosmodrome the Ghost made his way out of the shadows of the gigantic wall and renewed his search. Passing over the crest of a hill the Ghost spotted a large caravan of rusting cars.

"No harm in checking here."

The Ghost resumed it scans of the rusted out cars. It had begun scanning the skeletal corpse and winced as much as a Ghost could at what he found. He moved on to another area until he came across an anomaly.

"Wait...it can't be?! Is it possible?" The Ghost began scanning the anomaly, expanding itself into a blue ball of light.

"There you are!"

Darkness. That was all he saw. Of course, he did not know if his eyes were even open or if they were shut. Then there was a lurch, as if he was being sucked out of the darkness he was in. And then...light.

Pain. That was the first sensation he felt. Like all his bones were snapping back into place after not having been used for years. He was shaking in shock as his senses slowly came back to him, which is when he heard the voice calling out to him.

"Guardian…. Guardian…. Eyes up Guardian! It worked it actually worked, your alive!"

"A..a..re...are you talking to me?" I rasped as my ability to speak was slowly coming back to me. I could feel a headache beginning to form.

"Why yes who else would I be talking to?"

"Who..or what are you?"

"I am a Ghost. Well really, I'm now your Ghost. And you have been dead for a long time, and you're going to see a lot of things that doesn't make sense."

"Just…just wait one second I'm just-" The headache had become too much for me as I keeled over in pain. I felt like I was trying to remember something, but everything was just foggy and fragmented. 'Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Breath in and breathe out. In and out.

"What do you mean I have been dead for a long time and you never answered my question, what are you?" I asked as I stared at the small box in front of me. The Ghost, as it had identified itself as being, looked like it was about to answer my question before something roared out far away, but still close enough to be worrisome.

"What was that?" I asked.

"You know for a fresh Guardian you ask a lot of questions."

"Wouldn't you be to if you were just brought back to life with no recollection?"

"Fair point. Regardless we need to move. Hold still." the Ghost said as it then disappeared into nothing. "I'm still with you, I'm just in your armor, come on we need to get moving we are in Fallen Territory."

Heeding the Ghosts warning I started to move my feet, nearly falling a few times. Eventually I got my footing and began to run at full speed towards the massive wall past the rusting cars. Thankfully I was running along a beaten path which led to a small door in the side of the wall. Moving up the stairs I came across a metal catwalk that had obviously seen better days. Halfway across I heard steps above me, making me freeze in place for a few moments.

"Be very quiet, they are right above us."

"Yeah, no shit."

"I am just doing what I can to keep you alive right now, I didn't go through all this trouble to bring you back just, so you can die again. Before we can do anything else though I need to find you a weapon, our chances of survival will increase if I can do so. All you can do right now is keep moving."

So, what is a guy to do, wait around for death or at least keep pushing forward in the hopes of survival. Eventually the catwalk did end, and I walked up another flight of stairs. I could still hear them above me and even in the walls. The stairs ended, and it opened up into a large dark room. Suddenly I heard a whoosh of sound as the Ghost materialized in front of me and began making whirring sounds.

"Hang on a moment, I'm trying to see if I can turn on any lights. The Fallen prosper in the dark, we won't." the Ghost said starting to talk about the systems keeping him out. I started looking around trying to see if I could spot anything that stood out to me. Only just small lights scattered around and…. wait a second. 'Did those lights just blink at me?" I thought and then that's when Ghost had turned on the lights. Oh, not one or two lights to see around, he lit up the entire inside of this gigantic space, which funnily enough brought to light what was blinking at me.

"Fallen! They're coming for us, hurry I found this rifle!" Ghost quickly said to me rushing back into my armor. Which is when I got a better look at my armor. It was just plain white and gray with a simple field knife on the belt. As I quickly picked up the rifle, a creature come running around the corner. Without even thinking I held the gun up in my one hand and squeezed back on the trigger. A few things happened in this instance: 1) The creature fell dead, 2) I began to hear more chittering, which sounded vaguely like yelling, and 3) The rifle kicked back with so much recoil that it nearly took me out of the game causing me to fall on to my side the gun skittering away from me.

'Ugh that hurt. Good thing I was using protection, ha.' I cut myself short of my self-pity as I heard more of these 'Fallen' moving towards me. Quickly scrambling over to the rifle on the ground just as another creature came around the corner. Making sure to use both hands this time I fired a few more rounds into the creature. Quiet. No more chittering, no more scraping, no more noise. But I knew there would be more around the corner, laying in wait.

"If you guys want to make it easier on me you can get in an organized line to make this a lot easier." I yelled out unsure if they understood me. I eventually picked myself up and move to the corner of the beginning of the corridor ignoring the corpses of the two Fallen I had already killed. Slowly I peeked around the corner imagining it would immediately be peppered with shots and noticed nothing was around the corner. Bringing the rifle up to my shoulder to the ready I quickly move around the corner sights down. I could hear my blood pumping in my ears, as I walked down the hall.

The hallway came to an end and turned the next corner when all of a sudden two more Fallen popped out of an alcove and start firing at me. I would love to say that I sprayed them down immediately, but I quickly retreated back as I wildly sprayed. They were still peppering my position around the corner as I did the first thing that came to mind. I took the gun with both hands and just sprayed them down from the safety of my corner. Some of their shots had hit home and were still slightly stinging, but I could slowly feel them becoming numb.

I moved around the corner and past the corpses, ignoring them. I continued the trek and was surprised again as another small Fallen dropped in front of me. By instinct I brought up my knife and stabbed causing it to fall back dead. I could hear more around the corner, so with high hopes I reloaded my gun and ran around the corner spraying into them as they were still clustered together. I dropped two of the five and was moving to flank another small Fallen. After having dealt with it, I dived to the side as another Fallen, slightly larger than the smaller one, tried to claw me. I stabbed the slightly bigger Fallen and pumped a few more rounds into it to ensure it was dead.

Caught up in the heat of the fight I forgot about the other Fallen that was moving around and earned myself a few shots to the sides for my idiocy. Ignoring the pain for the moment I moved behind a broken pillar for cover. 'Where is it hiding?' I thought to myself. Quietly moving from behind cover I kept my head on a swivel. Gun at the ready I turned the corner of a large computer and came face to face with the last Fallen. I pulled the trigger on my rifle.

 _Click_

All was quiet as we stared each other down, waiting for the other to make their move. Deciding to try to get the upper hand on it I took the barrel of my rifle and tried using it as a club to beat him with it. Of course, it decided to move at the same time, lunging at me at the same time. The momentum of the Fallen falling on me pushed me back on the ground, with it on top of me clawing at my helmet. I had still hit it but that wasn't enough, and it only served to piss it off. So here I am a fresh Guardian, whatever that is, having my helmet clawed at by a Fallen, again whatever that is. Part of me wished for a saving angel to come to my rescue, but the other part of me, the more rational part, knew this would not be happening anytime soon. I only had one hope, my knife.

But in order to get my knife I would be opening myself up to an attack. Out of the outcomes only one had a chance of me surviving, and all others ended up with my death. I felt as if I was bargaining with death in this moment. I let my guard down a bit to grab my knife. As I had grasped my knife, I felt a searing pain in my neck. With another shot of adrenaline from this pain, I thrust the knife to the hilt into the chest of the fallen. The body of the fallen crumbled upon him, as I gasped for breath.

My Ghost had come out of my armor as I barely managed to throw the dead Fallen off my body. He immediately began scanning the wound and I felt it close up, but not my armor.

"The gash is too large for me to heal completely, along with the tear in your armor. You will have to play it safe from here." He told me as I began to pick myself up.

"How many more of these things are there?" I asked my ghost.

"My sensors don't reach that far, but I imagine there are still some up ahead. The whole Cosmodrome is crawling with Fallen."

"Which way?" I asked my ghost as he started scanning the area until he was able to set a marker for me.

"I will set some way points when I can, just try not to get yourself killed."

Moving out of the room where the fight had just taken place, I moved out into the large open area inside of the wall. So much had happened in the last 10 minutes, that I didn't even notice the catwalk was about to end until I jumped across it.

"Up ahead there's a chest, check it for loot. it might have something useful." my Ghost said startling me from my thoughts. Then I noticed the gold chest up ahead and moved up to it. Popping open the chest I found a sniper rifle. 'This should be useful.' I thought to myself.

"My sensors are picking up more Fallen signatures up ahead."

Steeling my nerves and making sure my gun was locked and loaded I moved up to the corner and turned down the hallway. Mowing through the few Fallen in the hallway, the hallway ended, and it opened up into another room. 'How many rooms does this place have?' as even more fallen came out of the walls and their hiding spots.

Taking up a defensive position I started sniping the few Fallen out in the open. From there the rest of the Fallen hid behind pillars and computer systems. Moving into what shadows there were I began popping out and popping heads. As the last Fallen dropped, my ghost highlighted a path out.

"The Fallen have picked up their activities in the past few weeks. It's most likely Fallen fighting Fallen for territory. Thankfully the Hive aren't around to cause any problems." Ghost informed me.

"Okay, okay. Just stop. Fallen? Hive? Guardians and Ghosts, what are all of these?" I asked partially annoyed at my Ghost. He turned around to me after scanning another computer system.

"Where would you like me to begin then?"

"What are you? I know you are a Ghost, but what exactly are you?"

"A Ghost is piece of the Traveler. We seek out Guardians, such as you, among the ancient dead and resurrect you to fight against the Darkness. We can continue to resurrect you until...well until we are unable to." My ghost stated matter of factly, but I was left with more questions than answers. Sighing to myself I continued my line of questions as I walked the path my Ghost highlighted, as he floated next to me.

"And what about the Fallen and these Hive you've mentioned?" I asked as I emerged into an outside open space keeping to the bushes and shadows as I noticed a few Fallen patrolling around some meters away.

"Fallen are a nomadic race who scavenge different systems. They have a hierarchy in each of the Houses, and usually the Houses are fighting each other. The ones you have fought with are Shanks, Dregs, and Vandals. There's a lot more to it that we will have to look into once we get to the tower and access Vanguard knowledge."

"And the Hive?" I asked, as I heard a loud war cry that echoed off the buildings. Seeing a building where I could get a good vantage, I jumped up onto the roof. Crouch walking over to the edge behind a sign I saw some of the Fallen engaging with other Fallen.

"The Hive are an ancient race that have fought with humanity and the Traveler since the end of the Golden Age. They are undead that reside on the moon."

Turning away from the fighting I fully sat down behind the sign, taking my helmet off and resting my head against the cool metal of the sign. 'What have I gotten myself into?' I thought to myself reminiscing on everything I have been told. 'Everything's going to hell in a handbasket.'

"Guardian. Guardian! We need to get moving I think I have located a ship to get you to the tower." Ghost stated, putting a marker up on my HUD display. "It will be through some more Fallen, but we will need to get through them if we are to stand a chance. You ready to go Guardian?" This time he asked it a bit worryingly towards me. I was staring at the visor of my helmet now, unblinkingly. Heaving a final sigh, I put my helmet on and picked my rifle back up. Looking towards my ghost, who was looking at me as worriedly as a Ghost could I asked him, "Which way?" knowing I must continue on, and not have an existential crisis right now of all times.

"This way." He said, gesturing towards a doorway far away from us that led into another complex. My Ghost moved back into my armor as I moved to jump down from my vantage point. Running along the snow and grass covered land I caught the eyes of the few Fallen leftover from the battle that I witnessed, but they decided not to bother us, instead focusing on their wounds.

I made it to the doorway and brought my gun to the ready already noticing that there were enemy signatures up ahead. Keeping quiet and low I traversed the hallways of the complex until I spotted some more Fallen through the window. All that were inside the room were a few Dregs. Before I could pop up and blast them away my Ghost voice made its way into my ear informing me I now had access to an Incendiary Grenade. 'Alright let's try this out then.' as I pulled the grenade from my belt where it just materialized and threw it into the middle of the three Dregs. All three were set on fire and fell to my grenade letting out screams of pain.

Moving to the next room I could see a few Fallen inside. I could make out a Vandal and a Dreg, and what I assumed was a Captain. Sadly, they heard the commotion from the other room and were prepared for me. While their shots floated to me, some hitting to close for comfort, I pulled my sniper and took quick aim at the Captain managing to get a shot into him. Before I could get another shot off, the shots from the Vandal and Dreg finally hit home throwing my aim off. Moving to cover I switched back to my rifle and decided to just engage them a bit more face to face. Moving out of cover I shot the Dreg as it was reaching for his grenade leading to it being dropped on his corpse.

Feeling the hairs on the back of my head I made a quick one-eighty shooting a few shots into vandal, finishing him off with my knife. The Captain after having regained his senses finally started shooting at me with his weapon sending fire hot shrapnel at me. Considering how fast he, sorry it, was shooting at me I could tell it was angry with me. Deciding my best bet would be to get the jump on him I pulled back behind a pile of containers. Then an idea came to me.

Making sounds of pain, and letting my gun fall to ground, I heard the Captain stop firing at me. Looking around the edge of the container I could see it approaching me on my right. Moving as quietly as possible to the left side of the container, I swiftly moved around while in its blind spot. Climbing on top of the container I watched as the Captain moved slowly, raising its shrapnel launcher, most likely to finish the job. As it rounded the corner of the container I made my move. Pulling my knife and hoping this would work, I jumped on top of the Captain thrusting my knife into its neck.

I heard a loud hiss and nearly cheered in victory before I fell the claws wrap around my torso. 'Ah shit.' I thought as the claws tightened and pulled me off throwing me away into a pillar. Breathing hard and with my vision swimming, I saw three Captains trying in vain to pull the knife out. If the Captain wasn't already angry at me, it was probably pissed now. Deciding to give up its attempt on pulling my knife out, the Captain turned its attention towards me.

Now I knew I was screwed.

 **AN: This was a bitch to edit, especially as I had to restart editing this chapter. So, we are introduced to our antagonist/protagonist, more on this later. Editing was a pain as stated previously because I would read an excerpt and say, "Hey I want to add/change this/something." Real Pain. But now I have to put thoughts to paper on the direction of this story. I have a general idea, but I just need to hammer out the timeline and details.**

 **If you decide to review in regard to the chapter/story please feel free to leave a constructive criticism review as I am always looking to better my writing.**


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